Top 5 things Florida landlords should know

West Palm Beach attorney Michael Posner has seen an increase in landlords lately with the new business model of buy and rent, instead of buy and flip.

These aren’t the sophisticated Wall Street hedge funds, he’s talking about. It’s more like Snowbird Canadians who are still picking up tiny condos and small duplexes, but might not know Florida landlord/tenant law. And that can lead to problems.

“We have clients who buy as an investment and then discover there are no written leases for the tenants living in the property,” said Posner, of Ward Damon Attorneys at Law. “We have issues with tenants not allowing people in to fix things, or not letting Realtors in to show the property.”

So Posner put together a top 5 list of things landlords should know before buying an investment home.

Pre-leasing:

Do a criminal background and credit check.

Confirm employment.

Investigate prior rental history.

Leasing:

The two types of leases in Florida are seasonal leases and leases greater than six months.

Determining the best lease agreement and how to acquire one (the lease approved by the Florida Supreme Court contains far too many blanks, and is designed to be tenant friendly)

Monetary defaults

There are strict guidelines on suing a tenant for damages or back rent. If a tenant can’t be found to serve a summons on, the landlord cannot collect monetary compensation.

Non-monetary defaults

This is basically an eviction. There are rules on what kind of action landlords can take, as far as changing locks, etc., to block a tenant from the property.

Post occupancy

After a tenant leaves, a landlord has 15 days to return the deposit, or 30 days to make a claim for damages. After 30 days, the full deposit must be returned to the tenant.

Meta

@MIller, having my family own several Addison Mizner Historical Properties and having been in Florida Real Estate since 1900,

EVERY LANDLORD better know Florida Statute 83 like back of their hand. Have to do 3 day notices for eviction filing and if your Legal Pleading is not perfect you have to re-do all over.

I stopped Filing a Count II on eviction complaints, if you can not get current rent, NO way you are getting back rent. You end up holding a judgement that only messes up someone ability to rent another house.

I put that kind of time in eviction filing, and that is because I can file myself. Boy you'd pay a crap load to get a Count II judgement that you have good chance to never see. MONEY DOWN drain.

There are no comments yet. Be the first to post your thoughts. Sign in or register.